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Squad get-tegethers and bonding sessions


The_Dark_Knight

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Back when Walter Smith was manager (And McLeish carried in on, in his first spell as manager) he regularly got the squad together for bonding sessions like dining out at restaurants and go-karting, etc.

If I remember correctly they always met up somewhere not too far for the players to travel, usually midway between England and Scotland. I'm not saying that that's going to be a magic spell to turn our fortunate around, but it couldn't hurt. It wouldn't hurt for the players to socialize every couple of weeks or so. Certainly wouldn't hurt.

Edited by The_Dark_Knight
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Actually not a bad idea.  IIRC, Smith wasn't a huge fan of friendlies - probably influenced by Vogts having such a poor record I'm friendlies which ultimately did him in - and so used some of the free international dates to have training camps, get the players together, do some training without the pressure of having a game at the end of it.

However, you can only do this when there are international dates and the problem now is that with the way UEFA have organised the Nations League along with mandatory friendlies, there really aren't any dates in the calendar when you can do this.

 

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1 minute ago, aaid said:

Actually not a bad idea.  IIRC, Smith wasn't a huge fan of friendlies - probably influenced by Vogts having such a poor record I'm friendlies which ultimately did him in - and so used some of the free international dates to have training camps, get the players together, do some training without the pressure of having a game at the end of it.

However, you can only do this when there are international dates and the problem now is that with the way UEFA have organised the Nations League along with mandatory friendlies, there really aren't any dates in the calendar when you can do this.

 

Yeah. Good memory, that's exactly what Walter Smith done. In lieu of friendlies Walter Smith pretty much told the SFA to forget about arranging friendly matches and instead arranged bonding sessions. It's similar to what he did at Rangers in the "The team that drinks together, wins together era. (However, I think the drinking culture during that era was a bit of a myth)

I think dates are the only fly in the ointment, to be fair. 

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I was thinking of arranging a coffee morning to raise funds for Christmas decoration for the local village hall, could incorporate a squad gathering to kill two birds with one stone. Perhaps a whist drive. Do you think they might be keen? I wouldn't ask Johnny Russell to fly over of course, the sandwiches might be a bit crusty at the edges by then. 

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1 minute ago, The_Dark_Knight said:

Yeah. Good memory, that's exactly what Walter Smith done. In lieu of friendlies Walter Smith pretty much told the SFA to forget about arranging friendly matches and instead arranged bonding sessions. It's similar to what he did at Rangers in the "The team that drinks together, wins together era. (However, I think the drinking culture during that era was a bit of a myth)

I think dates are the only fly in the ointment, to be fair. 

International friendlies are something of a double edged sword.  In theory, it gives you the opportunity to try out players and/or systems in games which mean nothing in terms of qualification.   That was Vogts's view but there was a big cultural problem he missed which is however unrealistic it might seem, the Scottish public and in particular the media expects Scotland to beat everyone, especially teams that are "beneath" us, which basically means everyone bar Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain and France.  So if you start to lose friendlies it affects confidence in both the public and the players.

Vogts took friendlies to one extreme, playing as many as he could and trying out as many players as possible.  That said, it did look in hindsight like a scattergun approach.  Smith went to the other extreme.  Somewhere in the middle would probably be the best but as I said before, it's moot as there's little flexibility in the calendar now. 

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All ideas are welcome but do people actually enjoy team bonding sessions ? Is there anyone out there that thinks ‘I cannot wait to go for a team bonding session they are so worthwhile?’

Most folk I know run for the hills whenever there is a sniff of a get together. 


 

 

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6 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

All ideas are welcome but do people actually enjoy team bonding sessions ? Is there anyone out there that thinks ‘I cannot wait to go for a team bonding session they are so worthwhile?’

Most folk I know run for the hills whenever there is a sniff of a get together. 


 

 

Is this from personal experience? They might be trying to tell you something?

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56 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Is this from personal experience? They might be trying to tell you something?

😁 you may be right but if they are the feeling is mutual, and I actually like my colleagues.
I find team building activities a load of absolute pish, though I admit I may just be an old cynic.

When was the last positive team bonding experience you had? 

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20 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

😁 you may be right but if they are the feeling is mutual, and I actually like my colleagues.
I find team building activities a load of absolute pish, though I admit I may just be an old cynic.

When was the last positive team bonding experience you had? 

Fuk team building, it's every man for himself in my book.

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On 10/13/2019 at 8:44 PM, Alan said:

Training sessions instead of a crap friendly do make sense but as @aaid says UEFA is jamming up those dates and even trying to increase number of Nations League dates.

(Guys it worked.  We were all surprised.  Don't push it).

UEFA don't make money from training sessions which is their focus unfortuantely. 

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